It could be called “Cheers” with spirit instead of spirits-a religious-based sitcom set in a diner.
“His Place,” a hit in Pittsburgh, is an example of the latest wave in Christian programming as the industry scrambles to fill the vacuum left by the decline of the Pentecostal preacher-based broadcasts that have been the most visible, and most vulnerable, staple of the industry.
At their recent 50th convention here, about 8,000 evangelical Christian station owners, producers, directors and featured radio and television performers swapped ideas, advice and business cards in what has become a fast-changing business struggling for a new identity.
Mixed in with workshops about the potential threats of Islam and the Clinton administration was guidance from such secular successes as Hanna-Barbera Productions and Fox Broadcasting Co.
The location of the annual meeting in the country’s entertainment mecca instead of the usual locale-Washington, D.C.-is a sign of freshness, said E. Brandt Gustavson, executive director of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB).
“Most of the big names around even 10 years ago are no longer around,” Gustavson said. “There are a lot of new people entering the Christian communication field.”
Among the trends cited by industry leaders and observers are:
– An increased emphasis on local programming and production as opposed to national ministries.
– A demand for financial accountability within the NRB, met by a counter-trend in which some remaining big-name players in the industry such as Robert Schuller and Paul Crouch reject the organization and its narrow evangelical focus or its regulations.
– Specialization in targeting audiences and age groups, with innovation in format and approach.
– A step back from the emphasis on politically charged views of the last decade. Said Ed Young, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, in an address to the assembly, “You can become so political that you lose your voice.”
Few people among the uncloistered have not heard of two big black eyes given the religious television business in the late 1980s by evangelists Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart. More recently, in late 1991, ABC television’s “PrimeTime Live” raised questions about the ethics of three Dallas-based television ministers: Robert Tilton, W.V. Grant and Larry Lea.
Of the three, only Rev. Lea was prominent in the NRB, having addressed its 1990 convention. But many viewers, industry leaders agree, fail to make such distinctions.
The result of the repeatedly exposed fallibility of big-name televangelists has been a distrust of the genre.
“Televangelists are still held in low esteem by the public,” Gustavson said.
But their fall has made way for a rise in alternative types of programming.
Says Ted Baehr of Atlanta’s Christian Film and Television Commission, “Basically, Christian broadcasting has changed dramatically from being a group of superstars who were big-time Pentecostal preachers come to the airwaves to broadcasters concerned about serving their audiences.”
The Pittsburgh diner show was an example of a creative use of the medium presented to this year’s attendees.
“If we look at Jesus, he talked in terms of parables,” Baehr said. “He didn’t just preach at people all the time.”
Those who do focus on preaching are now held more accountable, said Richard Lee, pastor of Rehoboth Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga. The scandals, he said, purged the industry and left it functioning better than before.
